EFF will support ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay if Johnson axed — Malema

The EFF will support the ANC in the Nelson Mandela Bay council on condition the party fires mayor Eugene Johnson from the top post.

This is according to EFF leader Julius Malema, who was speaking at a wide-ranging media conference in Marshalltown.

Malema said he had a discussion with transport minister and ANC national executive committee member  Fikile Mbalula, explaining why they wanted Johnson ousted.

“I said we want them to remove the mayor of the ANC because she messed up the appointment of the city manager against the resolution of the council.

“We can’t have a delinquent presiding over that municipality,” Malema said.

“We’re more than prepared to vote [with] the ANC on condition they remove that mayor.”

Mbalula confirmed the discussion.

“He is correct [but] the ANC has not reached finality on the matter. It will be finalised soon,” Mbalula said.

The DA, ACDP, AIC, AIM, FF+, PAC and UDM signed a coalition agreement in July, but only have a combined 56 seats in council.

The parties are hoping to unseat the ANC-led coalition, but to do so, need the support of the EFF, which has eight seats.

The EFF believes the appointment of city manager Noxolo Nqwazi during a chaotic council meeting in March was the culmination of fraudulent activity, with the vote misrepresented.

Dozens of councillors walked out of the meeting but Johnson went ahead and signed a contract the next day with Nqwazi.

When the decision was challenged in court, the judge ordered that the council convene a meeting and resolve the impasse.

Last week, the EFF’s regional leadership warned that if the DA did not contact the party’s national bosses, they would not sign a petition that calls for a special council meeting to remove the ANC-led coalition from power.

On Tuesday, Malema said the DA had made it clear it did not want to work with the EFF.

“We’re not going to vote with the DA. The DA doesn’t want us and they make it very clear they don’t want us.

“We’ll vote with the DA where our own local structures have developed a relationship with the DA and they can vouch for them and say for tactical reasons, let’s vote for them.

“We’re not going to give Nelson Mandela [Bay] to the DA and if the ANC is not going to remove that mayor and put in a proper candidate, we’ll abstain.

“We’re not kitchen girls and garden boys of Helen Zille,” he said.

“The DA has no regard for the EFF and their strategy everywhere is the EFF must be stopped.

“They will not get Nelson Mandela [Bay] if the ANC does the right thing.”

At the news conference, Malema also touched on internal party disputes, denying he was the invisible hand in the EFF’s internal ructions in Gauteng as the province prepares to elect new leaders.

He has been accused of interfering in the process of selecting leaders leading up to the provincial conference, which will convene in September.

Malema is believed to be backing EFF Ekurhuleni region chair Nkululeko Dunga.

But he dismissed the suggestion, saying he was far from influencing conferences as he did not run day-to-day operations of the party.

“I play a very small role when it comes to PPA [provincial people’s assemblies] and my role is to go to a PPA, speak and go.

“I do not do registration, I do not do membership, I do not run elections — unless the PPA degenerates and I will be called to come back and intervene,” he said.

He reiterated the party’s stance on finance minister Enoch Godongwana — saying he should step down while fighting allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Malema said his continued stay in office spit in the faces of rape victims — and those who argued that he had not been charged had embarrassingly low standards.